Does the Average Gamer Read?

[Psion]

RPGs have their roots in SF/F literature, so I'd be unsurprised if the correlation was high.

That said, personally, reading as a pastime has dwindled for me. As family and job concerns consume more of my time, it's been eclipsed by gaming as my pastime.

These days, I pretty much only read short stories, and extended novel series like I used to enjoy consume too much of my time and attention to be realistic.

 

[Eltharon]

Without reading LotR (and Redwall when I was 10), there would have been no way our group would have got into DnD. As it is, two members read excessivly (me included) and the others read more sparingly.
Personally, I want my DnD campaigns to be like novels, rather then hack and slash comic books. (or whatever, I don't read comics or manga)

 

[Umbran]

Earlier mmadsen stated that the average american doesn't read for pleasure... Do you think this will effect the number of people playing RPGs? Will it effect HOW they play RPGs?

Well, let us assume that right now, most Americans don't read for pleasure. Was it any different back in the 1970s? The 1980s? If not, then we aren't looking at anything new and different.

 

[Scribble]

Well, let us assume that right now, most Americans don't read for pleasure. Was it any different back in the 1970s? The 1980s? If not, then we aren't looking at anything new and different.

Valid point.

I've seen figures that suggest reading has been declining over the years, but I don't have anything I can post at the moment...

Found one:

http://www.nea.gov/news/news04/ReadingAtRisk.html

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I don't know about the average gamer, but most of the people I've gamed with have been readers. My current group has

2 voracious readers (reads daily, often more than book being read)
2 steady readers (always has a book going, but not necessarily every day)
2 casual readers (reads a book now and then)

I can think of a few people I've gamed with that weren't readers, but not many.

 

[sckeener]

I've been repeatedly shocked by the number of gamers here who have said they've never read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or Robert E. Howard's Conan stories. And I've read a number of stats saying that most modern Americans don't read any books for pleasure. So, no, I don't think the average gamer reads.

well, not reading Lord of the Rings or Conan....or Elric or Amber isn't ususal....they were written before many gamers were born and except by word of mouth [excluding LotR-movie], how would they even know about them? I mean school never required me to read them.

I hadn't read any of them when I started gaming. It wasn't until I was an adult in fact that I read any of those above.

The first sci-fi book I ever read was Dune and that was because the movie was coming out. My dad activily dislikes fantasy and sci-fi. I wish my parents had tried different genres with me as a kid. As it was they stuck to non-fiction. You'd think they would have gotten a clue by my interest in mythology, armor, weapons and castles. Admittedly I did have gaming books....but one can't consider a monster manual a fantasy book since it was a book about gaming...non-ficition. My parents had a hard time getting me to read....and if it wasn't for the lexicon of AD&D and the fact that my parents were lawyers, my vocabulary would be limited.

I was a late bloomer Sci-fi/fantasy-wise. It wasn't until the Crystal Shard that I was hooked on reading....I was 16.

I feel I have a lot of time to make up for.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Not as much as I should. I used to be a voracious reader, but have drifted from the habit. And it's hard to get back into it, I've found.

 

[Festivus]

Before I became a driver for my vanpool I was able to read a lot more than I can currently. Now, due to lack of time, I only have time to read websites and rulebooks occasionally when the kids are quiet.

 

[Obrysii]

Most of my group reads. I do not.

Because I really don't have the time. Between work, school, homework, and everything else, it simply isn't something I can do often.

It's amazing I even have time to game once a month.

 

[Merkuri]

I think gamers who don't read would be in the minority. Readers and gamers have a lot in common. Sure there are some RPGers who are in the game only for the hacking and slashing, but I find that most of those will eventually migrate to computer games. People who play pen and paper RPGs (and keep playing them) usually appreciate the roleplaying and the story that's being told. They want to experience an adventure that happens to made-up characters. That's basically what a book is, except in a book you don't have any say in the matter.

In a way, I think RPGs are just extensions of fantasy books, so it would make sense that gamers come from the same group of people as readers.